Hillsboro to Caballo, NM

Greg and I at our cabin, out of the cold for a day.

Greg and Nate...looking good!

Hillsboro to Caballo, NM

1/7/10

Day 64

17 miles

This morning we got out of our warm sleeping bags to the cold, crisp morning air. We ate our breakfast of peanut butter and jelly on hamburger buns along with Malt-O-Meal. We made entirely too much Malt-O-Meal and I had a sideache from laughing so hard at Greg and Nate playing with their food. We cleaned up and said goodbye to Nate, who was driving home to Grand Junction today. It was so great to have him along to talk, share stories, and made you laugh so hard you cry. We will definitely miss his company.

As we continued packing up our gear after Nate had left, a local came over and chatted with us, for a long time. He shared some interesting information about the area history as well as many details of his life. This guy seemed pretty lonely and kept talking to us for over forty minutes. He said he was a descendant of the Spanish conquistadors and his family had been in the area since the 1700s. His father had worked in the big Santa Clara mine we saw yesterday. He confirmed our suspicion that Hillsboro was indeed, a ghost town. We started getting weird vibes from the few scattered residents of this town and just wanted to head down the road. I think people become very set in their ways and paranoid when they are entirely too isolated from other people.

We had a good ride from Hillsboro to Caballo, which is a spot on the map when you first reach Caballo Reservoir. We had planned on riding to the last state park on the reservoir and stopped to get a snack at the Lakeside RV Park and gas station. We decided to stay here because they had laundry and hot showers and we needed a rest day anyway. We saw they had cabins and figured, why not ask? We found out they were $25 per night and that sealed the deal. Little did we know, the decision to stay here ended up saving us from being cold and miserable. So we did our laundry, showered and settled in for the night at this little cabin. Greg talked to his mom later that night and found out that there was a major storm warning for the El Paso area. So glad we are cosy in the cabin!

Dani